The present invention relates to business intelligence tools for building applications on a database management system (DBMS).
The advent of powerful, yet economical computers made possible by advances in processor, memory and data storage devices has made computers an integral part of modern companies. An important class of application for these computers includes a DBMS where information is collected and organized according to a data model and searched using queries. The DBMS allows users to perform operations such as locating, adding, deleting and updating records stored in the computer without a detailed knowledge of how the information making up the records actually is stored in the computer.
One powerful type of DBMS is known as a relational DBMS where stored information appears to the user as a set of tables, each of which is termed a relation. In each relation, the information appears to be arranged in rows and columns, with columns of data being related to each other by one or more predetermined functions.
To access particular information in the relational DBMS, a query compiler converts a user request, typically expressed in a query language such as a Structured Query Language (SQL), into a set of operations to be performed on one or more input relations to yield a solution responsive to the user's request. Using the query language provided by the DBMS, the user may develop application programs which facilitate retrieval of the data from the DBMS, processing of the data, and organization of the data into reports.
One issue in developing business intelligence tools is the type of reports that the tool is to generate. Typically, the tool generates certain pre-formatted reports using the query language. Although the query language is easier to use then conventional programing languages such as Basic or C, the generation of each new report still requires a certain programming expertise and can often take a substantial amount of time.